The holy grail: Pirate service that streams live TV for free plans to add cloud DVR

The pirate TV service that has the Internet buzzing is just getting started, according to the developers behind the project. Dubbed cCloud TV, the service launched late last month and delighted cord cutters with the ability to stream pay TV channels including HBO, ESPN, Showtime, TBS, AMC, Comedy Central, TNT, FX and more without paying. Following a brief legal scuffle that temporarily took cCloud TV offline, the site’s creators have reached out to BGR to clarify how the service works and to discuss some exciting new features coming down the pike.

For those unaware of the service, cCloud TV is a site that lets users stream live broadcast television channels for free to any computer, iPhone, Android phone or tablet. Several video game consoles, set-top boxes and other devices are supported as well.

Because most of the channels offered by cCloud TV are pay TV channels that are being streamed for free, there are several obvious legal issues that have already caused some trouble for the team that built the service.

cCloud TV was taken offline last week after GitHub, the service where the cCloud TV project is hosted, received DMCA notices alleging copyright infringement. After some brief downtime, however, the service was brought back to life at a new address. According to the streaming TV service’s creators, cCloud TV will remain online moving forward following clarifications made to GitHub explaining how the service works.

In a nutshell, cCloud TV doesn’t host any pirated content. Instead, the service points to publicly available video streams hosted elsewhere on the Internet. It’s unclear whether that explanation will satisfy the companies that own the content cCloud TV helps people stream for free, but a disclaimer detailing how the service works can now be found on the cCloud TV homepage.

As for news from the service, its lineup has grown from just over 40 channels in late May to nearly 100 at the time of this writing. The channels available through the cCloud TV site constantly change as some feeds go down and new feeds are added.

Even more interestingly though, the service’s developers have confirmed that they are working on a cloud-based DVR service that will let users schedule recordings and stream them back at any time. As exciting as this new feature sounds though, it may bring about an entirely new set of legal issues.

cCloud TV was recently updated to version 0.3beta, which adds stability fixes as well as compatibility with several additional devices.